The fourth beta of eComStation 2.0 has been released. Some of the new features include better wireless support, the Lucide document viewer, the Psi/2 instant messenger, SAMBA, and much more. "This is the fourth beta release of the eComStation 2.0. This product is available for download to all registered eComStation customers with active Software Subscription Services."

IBM, from what I remember, cannot open source the product because Microsoft owns a large chunk of the code. OS/2 was a joint project between the two at one time.

Due to this, IBM has to still pay licensing fees to the usual third parties, esp. Microsoft. IBM has to pass the charges through to Serenity Systems. Serenity also has to pay their developers.

Remember how long it took to open source Solaris? That was because the SCO Group owned a chunk of the code in there, and that had to get cleaned up before it was released. You'll also never see HP/UX open sourced because Symantec/Veritas owns a chunk of the file system code.

There are still many applications which run on OS/2 which people are more than willing to pay money for. There are people still using DOS and XENIX. OS/2 is going to be around for a while in some apps.

IBM has open sourced a lot of ancillary technologies which OS/2 uses (JFS, etc.). However, the base OS is still encumbered by patents from other sources, namely MS.

This product meets its customers' needs, and they are more than willing to pay for it.